1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of construction equipment.
2. Related Art
During construction projects, a contractor must often remove a section, slab or block of concrete or rock from the middle of a large floor slab, roadway, or similar concrete structure. Typically, the contractor will use a diamond saw to cut out and define the perimeter of the portion to be removed. The portion to be removed often does not have any raised or exposed edges that can be grasped in order to manipulate and/or remove the portion. Traditionally, contractors would turn to one of a few known techniques to remove the material within the defined perimeter under these conditions.
The contractor may break up the piece with a jack hammer or slab breaker and scoop it out in small pieces, if keeping the section intact is not needed. This process is slow and very labor intensive, resulting in a relatively high removal cost. To keep the section intact requires installing anchor bolts that have lift eyes. Rigging is attached to the lift eyes so the slab can be lifted out and moved by a skid-steer or other piece of hydraulic construction equipment. The anchors are expensive, are not reusable, require special tools to install, and protrude from the surface creating handling issues with removed section pieces. Another technique is to use a vacuum lifting device, but these have a very high equipment cost and are delicate and bulky.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a lifting apparatus that is easy to use, allows a contractor to remove the entire slab portion at once, is economical, and is reusable.